Squats and dreads after disc injury

I've been out of the game for years due to a car accident that herniated 2 discs and caused a lot of pain. Shortly after I reinjured myself at the same spot lifting and even ended up on pain management for a while. I've since weaned off of the medication and am doing much better. I've been doing rows on a machine and pull-ups and other back exersizes but have yet to really push legs.

How would you guys reccomend easing back into squating and pulling? I used to love powerlifting and would love to try and get back to where I used to be as safely as possible. Any input appreciated!

Basically I'd say learn the basics all over again. How to brace your core, how to create hip torque, everything square one.

Brian Carroll has good stuff on stiffening the core before training lower body. Donnie Thompson has great prehab/rehab techniques, check both of those guys out. Both have squatted over a thousand pounds after disc herniations.

Lastly, start with just your body weight on squats, stay there a long while, then light goblet squats for awhile, the bar, 135, all taken very slow and without discomfort. Pulls I'd do light as well and off of blocks or pins for a shorter range of motion and very gradually work your way closer to the floor.

Best case, you could be near where you were in a little over a year, So use that timeline to pace yourself.

@herderdude summed it all up perfectly. I was in this exact same situation 2 years ago. It took me about a year as well and I used a lot of tools to get back to squatting heavy again (yoga, rehab, a home TENS unit, lightweight squats with perfect form, and then heavy squats for triples). I also changed my form a bit, legs a bit further out than shoulders, toes pointed out, and squatted deeper between my legs (not on top of them).

There were moments where I took 2 steps forward, 1 step back, and I had a couple re-injuries, but if you're smart about it, that shouldn't happen. My problem was trying to squat and deadlift in the same day again, was too much and caused re-injury a couple times.

When I felt ok enough to start squatting again, what I did was 3 sets of 10, 3 times a week to start building up volume/strength again. Eventually I moved up to 3 heavy sets of 3, 3 times a week, and this helped get my squat back, as well as strengthened my back/core.

Thanks for the replies guys! I reqlly appreciate the advice. Glad to hear others have come back after disc injury, my doctor was making it sound like these kind of injuries mean you should never touch a heavy weight again.

As far as taking it slow, a year is a lot quicker than I was thinking before getting back to where I was so that sounds great to me. I like the idea of goblets before the barbell as well. The thought of getting back under the bar and adding weight just kept putting me off for a while out of fear of reinjury. I've never had pain like that before and I'd like to avoid that again at all costs lol.

I work daily with this kind of issues. Most likely your pelvic alignment is off, which puts the discs at great faulty compression.
Strengthen the lowermost lumbosacral erectors. Learn to hip hinge whilst maintaining a slight anterior tilt of the pelvis (read: pelvis, not thoracolumbar junction.)